Loki Alone: An Infinity War Tale
by Stormieriver
Summary: **Spoilers!** Loki is an extremely talented individual and has survived and deceived others by faking his own death before. What happens to Loki after Thanos's visit and retrieval of the space stone? I have a theory; what if Loki snuck his way back to Earth? And, aren't you curious about Wakandan spies stationed around the globe? Are there any who joined S.H.I.E.L.D.?
1. Chapter 1

_We had a Hulk_ , Loki thought. Heimdall had just closed the Bifrost for what Loki believed to be the last and final time. He cast Bruce Banner and his counter part, back through space.

Likely to Earth.

Loki turned his attention back to Thor. Thanos had just given Loki a proposition that he had refused.

Loki cringed as Thanos pressed the hot metal of the gauntlet to Thor's skin. The power stone activated at Thanos's will and burned into his brother's flesh. Thor could only suppress his screams for so long before he began to cry out in pain.

"Stop!" Loki said. His voice breaking a little. He and his brother had been through so much together; betrayal, loss, countless fights. All that they had been through, brought them to this moment, to this formidable foe.

"I will give you the tesseract." Loki said.

"We don't have the tesseract." Thor said. But Loki did. What Thor didn't know wouldn't hurt him, or at least that is what Loki used to think.

He raised one hand and the cube appeared in his hand. In the glow of the blue light, Loki could see the surprise on his brother's face. That surprise was quickly replaced by anger. Loki realized that his impulse for power had put them in harms way, rather than secure any advantage. Loki slowly raised the tesseract to Thanos, his head bowed in defeat. Thanos snatched the cube from Loki's grasp shattering the protective glass surrounding the stone. The atmosphere around them seemed to thicken for just a moment as the gauntlet and the stone connected like magnets.

"And now, for the next stone." Thanos boomed.

"I believe they are on Earth, Sir." said a dry and wizened looking creature. His hands curled together like a spider and the tall, thin structure of his body was curtailed by a slight hunch in his back.

"Perhaps, you'd need a guide on Earth!" Loki said energetically. Thanos gave him a blanketed stare; he seemed neither interested nor moved by Loki's proposal.

"I, Loki, Odinson, God of Mischief-" but Loki moved too quick too soon, and without much thought. He had gone to strike Thanos, mid sentence. But with two stones, Thanos was twice as powerful and twice as unstoppable.

He froze Loki mid thrust. Loki's knife a couple of inches from Thanos's neck. Loki hesitated and struggled against Thanos's power. A look of understanding dawned over Loki as the titan sighed, clearly disappointed. Before Loki could make another proposal, Thanos's fists closed in around Loki's neck. He lifted the God of Mischief off his feet. Loki could hear his brother screaming behind him, but his mouth was muffled by metal binding.

Was this how it would end for the God of Mischief?

Loki's face contorted in pain as Thanos began to choke the life from him. Loki could feel his throat constricting and collapsing. A tight and pounding pressure began to build in the base of his temple. He could feel that he was dying.

"You will never be a god." Loki croaked before Thanos's crushing grasp snapped his neck.

Thanos dropped Loki's body to the ground and stepped over it to make his way back to his ship. As soon as Thanos and his lackeys departed, Thor's restraints released and bursts of purple flames began to envelop the ship.

Loki! Thor shouted as he rushed to cradle his brother's broken body. Tears fell from Thor's face as he hunched over Loki. Thanos's brutish finger prints were embedded along the back of Loki's neck and his head was permanently twisted to one side. "No!" Thor cried again. He threw one arm over his brother's body as if he were protecting him, but Loki was already gone, or so Thor thought.

The ship broke apart amidst the destruction of the purple flames. In the explosion, Thor was still grasping what he thought, was Loki's body as he began to fade out of consciousness.


	2. Chapter 2

_Paperwork, paperwork, paperwork._ Fumi thought back on her day.

Fumi typed and moved between the three screens on her desk. She was monitoring satellites, police scanners, and sorting through a stack of emails and paperwork. S.H.I.E.L.D technically didn't exist anymore but was now operating remotely on Stark grounds. But even that had been taken over and they were being remotely supervised by the United States Government and the United Nations.

 _It has definitely started to make things difficult for me._ Fumi thought.

The United States Government had started to check her background even more thoroughly than S.H.I.E.L.D had and trust, S.H.I.E.L.D had been extremely and invasively thorough.

"How many years have you been working for S.H.I.E.L.D, Lilith?" They asked.

Yes, here they called her Lilith.

"5 years."

"You seem young to be working in such a high-level facility. How did you find yourself here?" A tall pallid man with mousey brown hair and a giant mustache sat across from her. The ceiling light bounced off his glasses and when he talked, his mustache quivered like a walrus eating a fish. Fumi's mouth twitched and she suppressed the smile that threatened to envelop her face. She needed a distraction. Her hands immediately went to her hair and she played with the fraying ends of her braids.

She was young. 26 years old.

"I stand out." Fumi responded.

"Explain" the Walrus said.

"I went to Harvard." Fumi stated. "I originally studied psychology and philosophy. I was a double major and intended to further my studies by focusing on criminal justice or law after undergrad. In college, I solved two strange cases of streakers on campus, worked for the school newspaper, and was altogether pretty nosy to begin with. I had a professor who noticed me. He used to work for S.H.I.E.L.D and recommended me for the position." Fumi said. "To be honest, I didn't really know you all existed until the attack on New York and even then, I wasn't all that interested. But I'll admit, its pretty fun working here."

"Fun?" said Walrus-face. "You think that chaos management, is fun?"

"Yes." Fumi smirked.

Walrus-face questioned Lilith for two more hours allowing for one quick bathroom break. But Fumi, had spent several years perfecting the character of Lilith and so had her parents too. But her parents had passed away four years ago. Now, she was rather alone in the United States.

Fumi sat on her back porch, on her little plot of land with legs kicked up on a wicker ottoman. She sipped a cup of tea with one hand and balanced a book with the other. She lived on a two acre plot that she had all to herself.

Come to think of it, she had done rather well for herself. She heard a sharp barking in the distance. The small snap of a corgi pummeled up the back porch steps. Fumi's dog, Mr. Guppy was more agitated than usual tonight.

"Guppy, stop it." Fumi picked up the wriggling dog. Mr. Guppy continued to growl fiercely. But Fumi could see no one else around. She watched through the shrubs in her garden and the bushes lining her property, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Fumi shushed the dog, whose bark was reduced to a soft whine. Fumi began to pet the dog wondering what was making him act so weird.

A sudden, multicolored blast of light rained down on the yard. Fumi screamed and stumbled backwards on the porch. The blast was as loud as it was quick; a sonic boom. The flash of light was a vast stream that disappeared in a vacuum of silence. Fumi scrambled to the edge of her porch, Mr. Guppy was quiet but only for a moment before he took off down the yard and resumed his erratic barking.

"Guppy!" Fumi hissed. Her accent was starting to come out. It always did when she was angry. A tall, dark figure rose from the ground. The middle of her garden had been decimated by a smoking ring left by the flash of light. The steam curled off the dark figure as well.

 _A man_ , Fumi thought by it's stature and the way that the figure carried it's body. Mr. Guppy danced around the figure barking nonstop.

The figure turned towards the sound of Fumi's voice. He had a crazed look on his face, some mix between fear and anger. He stumbled some as he walked like he might have been hurt in a fight. But Fumi recognized the man as soon as he turned her way. He slicked back his black hair as his eyes rested on her. They stared at each other for a minute. He didn't look threatened or threatening and a flicker of curiosity crossed his face.

"I don't suppose you might want to give a man some help?" He stated.

Fumi could feel one of two items on her person; one a gun and the other a taser. Fumi did not think that she would need the gun. She was tempted to relax a little, but when the figure took a step towards her, she snapped back to attention and took one step back.

"Stay where you are." she responded. Mr. Guppy was dancing around the tall figure yapping and poking his nose around the man's feet. Fumi felt a hint of frustration with her dog. "Guppy!" She hissed but the dog paid very little attention to her. "Get over here." She motioned for the pup to come closer, but he would not. She sighed with resign.

"Perhaps I can help?" The stranger suggested, he began to bend down to pet Mr. Guppy.

"Don't touch my dog." She snapped.

"Sorry, where are my manners." the man said, "my name is Loki of-"

"-Yeah, I know who you are." She said.

Loki raised an eyebrow, "You do?" He smirked.

"Yes." Loki took one more step towards her. "Don't try anything." Fumi said. She had one hand behind her back grasping the taser. It was not possible for Loki to tell what it was that she was hiding.

"What is your name?" Loki asked. He kept looking at the sky. Was he expecting more to follow him?

"Will there be more of you joining us?" Fumi asked.

"I hope not." He said. If felt like he was trying to charm her, but there was also a tinge of urgency behind his words.

"What are you doing here?" Fumi asked.

"We should go inside." he said, "May I come in?"

"No." She responded.

"What is your name?" He asked again. He seemed purely interested. She didn't respond. Loki continued, "Once upon a time, I would have come to Earth with a goal of conquest, but now I come to offer my services.

"Why should I trust you?"

"I think that it is fair to say, that even a god can be as fickle as a human" Loki shrugged.

"Was that supposed to convince me?" Fumi crossed her arms, the taser now visible. "It sounds like you are saying that I shouldn't trust you."

"Oh, I wouldn't trust me." Loki said.


	3. Chapter 3

"Oh, I wouldn't trust me." Loki said. He began to walk towards Fumi, not stoping or slowing down.

"Stop! Don't come any closer. You're trespassing!" she shouted. When he was within arms reach, she went to strike him. But her hand went through him. "What kind of illusion is this?" she gasped.

"Witchcraft." said a voice behind her. Fumi thrust her elbow behind her, effectively landing a blow in the center of Loki's chest. He had appeared behind her somehow.

 _How did he do that?_ Fumi wondered.

Loki moved fast and jerked her arm behind her and Fumi dropped the gun. She still holding the taser when Loki tried to drag her into the house. She thrust the taser into his side and turned the voltage up as high as it would go to 50,000 volts. Loki twitched, but seemed barely bothered by the shock.

"Don't make this harder than it needs to be." he said so soft that his voice was barely above a whisper. She jerked in his grasp and kicked him between the legs. An instant flash of pain shot through her leg. She quickly withdrew her leg, hopping on one foot.

"Ow, ow, ow!" she cried, grabbing at her leg.

Loki grunted at the attack but he did not go down. Fumi noticed for the first time that he was wearing armor. She tried to limp around him.

"Wait for one minute," he said. "I'm not actually trying to fight you. Trust me if I wanted to, I could bring you to your knees." he spat.

"No man has and ever will bring me to my knees." Fumi snapped back. Loki seemed to take it as a challenge. He straightened up again and whipped his hands out to reveal two slim knives. Fumi had a quick moment of indecision, there were many options she could take to insure she won this fight, but could she afford to compromise her true identity in the process?

But Loki did not attack her again, as she thought he would. Instead, he threw the knives at the back door which shattered in a rain of glass.

"We need cover." he muttered.

"From what!" she shouted. "You just busted my door you giant barbarian." He ignored her and began walking towards the house. Her home. She trailed behind him, confused about what was happening.

"I did not come to Earth to fight with a human." he said. "I am looking for something and someone." He walked up to her porch.

"Stop!" she commanded. But he ignored her once more.

She juggled the black beaded bracelet around her wrist and pressed one of the buttons on the bracelet; it glowed white in response. Just as Loki was making his way through the broken back door, an electric current burst into his body. He jerked wildly and a strangled groan escaped his lips before he dropped to the floor.

"How do you like those 600,000 volts, barbarian?" Fumi smirked.

Mr. Guppy finally calmed down now that their intruder was unconscious. The dog trampled over the fallen alien, as he walked into the house. Fumi picked up the dog and walked it into her room.

"That stupid man." she said to Guppy, "now I will have a whole mess to clean up." Fumi closed the dog inside her room. When she walked back to the porch, Loki was still there unconscious. Fumi dragged his body through the glass shattered living room and into the bathroom, where she tied him up with the strongest duck tape she could find. Then Fumi went back to the mess before her. She sighed loudly and pressed another button on her bracelet. A thin slit of light shot out and scanned the mess before her. She pressed another button and all of the glass rose from the floor and moved back into place, along the door frame. It was like nothing had ever been broken. Fumi tested the back door, sliding it open and closed again.

 _Perfect_. She thought.

There was a scraping sound in the bathroom. He was up already. Fumi figured that she would need something stronger than duck tape to keep Loki in place. When she entered the bathroom, she found Loki jammed awkwardly between the toilet and the bathtub. He must have tried to stand.

"It's kind of a tight space to be doing all this moving around" Fumi said. She was standing in the doorway with her hands behind her back. Loki glared at her with so much fury, Fumi was surprised that she didn't melt where she stood.

"Sorry to put you in such an awkward position." she smiled. "Don't be too angry with me. You don't have a very good reputation amongst most earthlings." Fumi explained as she crouched over him and helped him sit up. She didn't expect to give him an opening. Loki bucked forward knocking Fumi back into the bathroom cabinets. He ripped the duck tape from his hands, freeing himself. He tried to pin Fumi to the tiled floor. She used one hand to push against him and the other hand to jab an needle into the side of his neck.

He recoiled instantly, the needle protruded out of the side of his neck. "You scrounging little mut." He said. "Did you just stab me?" His words started to slur. The drugs took seconds to work, even for someone like him. The bones seemed to have evaporated from his body, he went down so fast. Fumi caught him before he hit the tile.

He was a lot heavier than she expected.


	4. Chapter 4

Loki woke up with a pounding headache and rolled over on his side. He rubbed his head and noticed the cool metal cuffs around his hands. _More useless restraints,_ he mused. He didn't have time for this. Loki jerked his hands apart, thinking that he could easily break the chains, but they did not budge. He furrowed his brow in frustration as he yanked at the cuffs again. He let out an angry sigh and sat up on a carpeted floor.

This was not the same room he passed out in. He hands went to his neck as he remembered the girl stabbing him with a needle. Where was she?

He heard the same noisy barking that had greeted him upon his arrival. A furry creature jumped on Loki's lap and gnawed at the leather on his boots. Apparently the animal had been doing this for a while. Loki could see the fibers of the leather fraying; a hole in the making.

The girl rounded the corner and paused when she saw that Loki was awake.

"Oh good, you're up." she smiled. Her braids swayed as she walked and she was a lot taller than he remembered. She reminded Loki of Valkyrie.

"Will you release me?" he asked.

She scoffed.

"How does one ask for asylum?" Loki asked. The girl burst into laughter. Loki narrowed his eyes at her. He was serious.

"You?" she managed to say between fits of giggles "Why would anyone on Earth give you asylum?" she slapped a skillet on the stove.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"I'm going to chop off your man parts and eat them." she replied.

Loki looked taken aback, which only made her laugh more.

"No stupid, I'm making breakfast."

"Will you share or just eat in front of me?"

"Don't worry, I'm not cruel." she said.

"Are you going to report me?" he asked.

"Who would I report you to?" the woman said.

"The man with the eyepatch?"

"What makes you think I know him." the woman said. Loki raised the handcuffs and the woman smirked. "What, you don't think all earthlings have these crazy cuffs?" she pointed to Loki's bound wrists with a spatula. He figured that she was joking due to the lack of inflection in her voice.

"No, you humans are painstakingly slow in the technological uptake." Loki said, "It's dull."

The woman didn't respond, she continued to cook eggs and toast, and from what Loki could see, bacon. He tried to stand but quickly realized that the handcuffs were also chained to the floor.

"What the hell." he said.

"I can't have you trying to choke me from behind." she said with her back turned to him. "Have a seat, Loki."

"You _must_ work for the man with the eyepatch." he said.

"He has a name." she replied. Loki sank into the crunch and leaned back into it. He was as comfortable as he could be for someone chained to the floor.

"It's not worth my time to remember the names of humans with so little significance." he snapped.

"That's rude." the woman said. She sat down on a small table in front of the couch. She had a plate of bacon and toast in one hand and eggs in the other.

"Is that what you eat for your morning meal?" Loki raised an eyebrow.

"Oh I'm sorry did you want fruit or something?" she asked.

"Yes."

The woman shook her head. "I don't feel like getting it anymore."

"I can't get it." Loki said slowly, as if he were talking to a child.

"Sounds like a personal problem." the woman replied even slower and started munching on a piece of bacon.

"What is your name?" Loki said. "I've asked you before, but you don't answer."

"My name is Lilith." she said.

"Lilith," he smiled, "You're a cunt."

"I'm sorry, were you still expecting me to feed you?" Lilith asked. "Because on second thought, I think you look pretty plump." she said. The two started name calling, back and forth. Their voices getting louder and angrier by the second. Neither Loki nor Lilith heard the chime of the door when it opened.

"Well, shit, fuck, damn." said a deep and amused voice." Lilith stood immediately, almost knocking over the plates of eggs and bacon at her side.

"Sir" she said. Loki came face to face with Eyepatch again.

"Well if it isn't Thor's greasy little shit bag of a brother." Director Fury said. "Where you hoping for a platinum cage this time?" he mused. It took every fiber of Loki's being to not respond with an equally fierce retort.

"I actually came here with Banner." Loki said.

"Really, cause I don't see a big green monster." Director Fury said.

"It's a really long story, but we got separated." Loki shrugged. Lilith was watching Loki the whole time, she did not know whether she believed him. But it was very clear that Fury did not.

"So where is Banner now, Shakespeare?"

"Probably in New York." Loki said.

"You're lying, I would have heard about it." Fury said. Loki sighed, exasperated; he had had enough.

"Have you ever thought that for one minute that there was something out there bigger than yourselves!" Loki said. Fury paused. "Have you ever thought that something more terrible and more strong than your ape-bound minds could understand, is coming for you. You won't be ready when it hits and it is coming soon. Yes, so much sooner than you think, today probably." he nodded outside, towards the back porch. The woman, Lilith followed his gaze. It still looked like any regular, sunny day.

But she was so very wrong.


	5. Chapter 5

"I am looking for someone, and I think that you know where she is." Loki said.

"Who are you looking for?" Fury asked.

"I want asylum." Loki said first. Director Fury burst into laughter. Loki thought that he laughed harder than the girl did. "I'm serious, I won't say another word until you agree to this one term." Loki threatened "I don't think you understand how serious the situation is and how much worse it will become." he said.

Fury stopped laughing and crossed his arms, as if to consider Loki's offer. Then the Director pulled out his phone and bent over the small device. He seemed to be scrolling through rolls of information and then he put the phone up to his ear. Fury watched Loki out of the corner of his eye.

"Get me eyes on Stark." Fury said into the phone. He waited on the other end for a response. "What do you mean?" he snapped. "Don't tell me you can't find him. I thought we had eyes on him!" Fury shouted into the phone. Lilith and Loki made eye contact. Loki could see that the pieces were starting to click together in her head. _It's about damn time._ he thought. "Put Potts on the line and don't call me back until you've located Stark." Fury snapped and flipped the phone shut.

"I cannot believe that you still have a flip phone." Lilith said.

Fury snapped an angry glare at Lilith. She put her hands up as if to surrender, and took one step back.

"I take it you didn't find Stark." Loki said.

Fury walked up to Loki and sat on the small table, where Lilith had just been. He bent down so that he was level with Loki. "We will give you asylum, if you can give me the name of the person you are looking for."

"A woman; part Kree by accident and part human by consequence." Loki said. "You certainly know her. My last encounter with New York must have had you searching the galaxy for some galactic ally. Am I wrong?" Loki said.

A long silence followed Loki's taunt, as he and Fury stared each other down. Lilith stood awkwardly by the window, watching them.

"Will we give him asylum or not?" she said. "Obviously something is wrong."

But before Fury could answer Lilith, his phone rang. He answered it, "Potts, where's Tony?" he said. There was a pause as Fury waited for the response. All throughout the conversation, Lilith watched Loki. He seemed very relaxed for a man who only four years ago, attacked the planet.

When Fury hung up the phone, he turned to Lilith and then Loki, and back to Lilith again. "Grant the asylum."

A wide grin spread over Loki's face, "Take me to Carol." he said.


	6. Chapter 6

Fumi sat down at her home office and pulled open the left drawer. She grabbed a remote. If a stranger were looking at it, they would not know what it went to. It didn't have an entertainment name on it, no brands. She pointed the remote at her bookshelves and clicked one of three buttons. The shelves pushed out and slid to the side to reveal a number of hidden screens. All the screens displayed something different. One screen had CNN on. The reporters were focused on a disturbance that was going down in Central Park. Fumi was turning on her office computer to start Loki's asylum papers, but paused to watch the event unfolding before her.

"Goddamn it." Nick said.

Fumi turned her attention back to her computer and continued with the paperwork. A couple minutes later, Agent Hill came in. She didn't seem at all surprised to see Loki, but she was surprised to see the news.

"Sir, what is going on?" she gasped.

"We've got eyes on Stark." Fury said. He walked up to one of the screens and using the touch activated features, he shifted through information. "Maria, organize some transportation. We are going to need a better vehicle than what we brought."

Director Fury walked up to Fumi's desk. "Lilith, the keys please." He reached out a hand.

Fumi reached into the pockets of her sweatpants and handed over the keys. Fury took the hand cuffs off of Loki who rubbed his wrists.

"Tell me about what you saw." Nick said to Loki, "and no bullshit."

"Alright then," Loki said. "My brother and I had just reunited. We fought off our evil sister, the Goddess of Death. We let her destroy Asgard in a fight with the demon Surtur. We evacuated Asgard and escaped with our lives and our people, and just as my brother and I reconciled our differences, we were attacked by Thanos." Loki said.

"Tell us more about Thanos." Fury said.

"His name means, death." Loki said. "He is the Mad Titan. I'd heard of him before, but he had always been a story that my father told." Loki paused. "I've seen him before though. It was before I attacked New York." Loki's voice got quieter as he spoke until he drifted into a reflective pause. He shifted uncomfortably in his seat, he broke eye contact with Fury, and fumbled his fingers.

"Loki" Fumi said. "head up, keep talking." It was clear that his memories of Thanos, were not happy ones.

"Right,"Loki said. "My brother and I, we were headed for Earth. We wanted to bring our people here. But Thanos must have had the same idea. He stopped us. His ship was bigger than ours, it was a war ship. Ours was little more than a cargo ship, it was not designed for attack. We had little opportunity for defense, or escape. They attacked us, boarded our ship, and killed over half of our people." Loki said.

Fumi clenched her teeth together to keep the sick feelings at bay. How could someone be so cruel?

Loki paused again, Fumi could see that he was choosing his words wisely. "I brought something with me before Asgard was destroyed. You see, we had a room full of trophies. They were things of legend, things we collected at our conquests. Many of these things were dangerous objects, hidden away for safe keeping. One of those things was the Tesseract." Loki explained.

"You will remember, Thor brought it back to Asgard, after New York." Loki said. "I grabbed it before Asgard was destroyed."

"No surprise there." Fury spat.

"I didn't do it out of greed!" Loki shouted. He had risen from the couch, his fists were clenched and Fumi could see that his eyes were watered and shining, like one on the verge of tears.

"We believe you." Fumi said. Loki gave her an appreciative look and bowed his head again. Fumi gave Director Fury a sharp look, meant as a warning. It would do them no good if Fury taunted Loki.

"I was going to use it to bargain our safe passage back to Earth. It was supposed to be a peace offering." Loki said as he slumped back into the couch. "I ended up giving it to Thanos to distract him. I never meant for him to keep it." Loki said.

"What is Thanos after?" Fury asked.

"He is looking for the Infinity Stones. There are six in all. There must be another stone on Earth somewhere." He has two stones right now, the Power Stone, and the Space Stone."

"Do you know what these stones look like? Who might have them?" Nick asked.

"There was a man that my brother and I met a couple months ago. I didn't have a chance to really talk to him. But I noticed that he was a sorcerer who practiced the mystical arts. He was aware of who I am and wanted me gone. Alone, he was quiet powerful, but his talents were accelerated by a gem that he wore around his neck. It was clear to me that it was something special, but as I mentioned earlier, I didn't have much time to talk. He quickly cast us out of New York."

"What's his name?" Fury asked.

"Steven Strange." Loki answered.

"How do we find him?" Fumi asked.

"He is in New York too." Loki said.

"Maria, how is the transportation going?" Fury asked.

"I'm having some difficulty getting in contact with home base." Maria said.

"What do you mean?" Nick said.

"Lilith, call base." Maria said. Fumi pulled up Chat and pulled out her work phone. She called base and typed a quick message on Chat.

"My calls aren't going through." Lilith said. Her phone had cut off, it wouldn't dial, it didn't even ring.

"It's begun." Loki said. "War."


	7. Chapter 7

"We need to move, now." Fury said.

"Our car isn't fast enough, nor does it have the safety features we require for a Level 5 attack situation." Maria said. "We can't get in contact with base."

"We'll have to assume that our access has been overrode." Fury said.

"Shit" Fumi said. The government had been interfering more and more with S.H.I.E.L.D processes. They had been inching closer and closer throughout the past couple years, slowly sinking their teeth in and taking control of S.H.I.E.L.D. operations. It had taken nearly two years to get back some level of control after Captain Rogers and Stark's fight in the airport lot. The government had warned Director Fury earlier this year, that if another incident occurred they would take over completely. Today, they wasted no time taking control of operations.

Fumi continued to send messages through Chat and hoped to reach someone, anyone: a desk operator, another agent, a manager. She had several chats open waiting for a response. Then her screen went completely black. She looked at her screens that were mounted on the wall, several of them had gone black. They flashed and then the screen settled. A man in a dark blue suit appeared.

"Mother-fuc-"

"Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. be notified that this is the United States Government. By order of the President you are asked to hand over any information and covert knowledge that you may have concerning S.H.I.E.L.D.'s dealings, technology and innovation. For the next 24 hours, highly trained personnel will be posted at headquarters and sister locations, in accordance with government protocol for the _Absorption of S.H.I.E.L.D. Agents and Associates_. Do not resist. Do not fight. Anyone resisting the new protocols will be held in contempt and be prosecuted to the furthest extent of the law."

Then suddenly, the man vanished. His image was replaced by the presidential seal.

"That doesn't seem good." Loki said.

"No shit." Maria snapped.

"I'm starting to have some concerns about our agreement." Loki said.

Director Fury turned to Fumi, "Pack up" he ordered. She nodded a response. Apparently, she had been waiting for this order. She walked over to the ottoman; she held it up with one hand and twisted one of the legs with the other. The top of the ottoman popped open to reveal several duffle bags. Fumi threw one to Loki and hauled the other two over her shoulders.

"But sir, we still need transportation!" Maria shouted.

"We will make do with what we have." Fury said. Fumi knew that Nick had many secret hideouts that were off the radar. He had disappeared off the map before and was going to do it again; and this time, he was going to take Fumi and Loki with him. _But_ , Fumi thought, _I'm not taking any chances._

 _"_ I can get us where we need to go." Fumi said.

"Lilith, you don't have the clearance."

"Not for here, I don't" she responded.

"What?" Maria said. Fumi was already walking to the garage past the garden. Loki, Maria, and Nick all follow closely behind her. Fumi pressed several beads on her bracelet and walked into the garage. As they walked in, Fumi could see lights glowing underneath the tarp.

"I haven't been entirely honest with you." Fumi told them.

"Honest with who?" Loki asked.

"All of you." she said. "For one thing, my name isn't Lilith. My name is Fumi." She pulled the tarp away to reveal a sleek modestly sized vehicle.

"You're African?" Nick said, but Fumi couldn't tell if it was a question or a statement.

"Yeah, I'm Wakandan." Fumi said. She finally dropped her American accent. "I wouldn't usually blow my cover like this, but I could sense the desperation in the air and I didn't want to leave my fate up to one of Nick's penetrable fortresses." Fumi said.

"I think I'm starting to like you." Loki told her. Nick still seemed to be stunned into silence. "What other tricks do you have up your sleeve, Fumi?"


End file.
